{"id":101583,"date":"2020-04-26T15:34:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T22:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101583"},"modified":"2020-04-26T15:34:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T22:34:23","slug":"unnecessary-to-reconvene-the-parliament-also-no-hurry-to-hold-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/26\/unnecessary-to-reconvene-the-parliament-also-no-hurry-to-hold-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Unnecessary to reconvene the Parliament; also, No hurry to hold Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Article\n70 (1) of the Constitution \u2013 \u2018The President may by Proclamation, summon,\nprorogue and dissolve Parliament\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law\nis very clear, the President has clear power to dissolve the Parliament (Article\n33 (1) also provides this power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly,\nthe President issued a gazette notification on 2 March 2020 dissolving the Parliament.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe said gazette notification the President fixed 12 March 2020 to 19 March\n2020 as the nomination period for the election of Members of the Parliament\n(MPs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless\nthere was a technical defect in the gazette notification (the writer could not\nfind any), it is incomprehensible how one could seek a judicial declaration that\nthe said gazette notification is null and void. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who\ndemand reconvening the Parliament state that Article 70 (7) compels the President\nto do the same:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article\n70 (7) If at any time after the dissolution of Parliament, the President is\nsatisfied that an emergency has arisen of such a nature that an earlier meeting\nof Parliament is necessary, he may by Proclamation summon the Parliament which\nhas been dissolved to meet on a date not less than three days from the date of\nsuch Proclamation and such Parliament shall stand dissolved upon the\ntermination of the emergency or the conclusion of the General Election,\nwhichever is earlier.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The language in\nthe said Article is clear, that the President can reconvene the dissolved Parliament,\nand that will be at his sole discretion. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no\nmandatory requirement for the President to reconvene the dissolved Parliament,\nowing to the current Corona Pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Corono Pandemic\nhas caused an emergency situation in the country, especially in relation to appropriation\nof funds for governance until the new Parliament is convened, Article 150 (3) provides\nthe remedy. The President has power to act on his own:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 150 (3) – Where\nthe President dissolves Parliament before the Appropriation Bill for the\nfinancial year has passed into law, he may, unless Parliament shall have\nalready made provision, authorize the issue from the Consolidated Fund and the\nexpenditure of such sums as he may consider necessary for the public services\nuntil the expiry of a period of three months from the date on which the new Parliament\nis summoned to meet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwriter thus states that it is unnecessary to reconvene the Parliament. The\ngovernment should concentrate on curbing the Corono Pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis no public consensus for such a demand (reconvening the Parliament).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwriter believes that any judicial action seeking reconvening the Parliament is\ndoomed to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis well known that owing to the President\u2019s early dissolution of the Parliament\n62 MPs lost their pension rights, as they failed to complete the full\nParliamentary term of 5 years.  If the\nParliament is reconvened now, those MPs may become eligible for pensions (if\nthey manage to complete the full 5 years); as well as their salaries.  The daily cost of running the Parliament is\nenormous. These will be a huge unnecessary drain on tax payer funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nargument that these MPs are willing to forego pensions and salaries is\nimmaterial; they are legally entitled to them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(9th<\/sup>\nSchedule \u2013 Appendix III, List II):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(o) Pensions,\nthat is to say, pensions payable by the Government of Sri Lanka or out of the\nConsolidated Fund;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 (p) Salaries and allowances of Members of\nParliament and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nare no longer MPs, but former MPs.  But,\nmany continue to act as MPs!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nof them have failed to vacate their parliamentary accommodation – bungalows,\nhouses and flats (not by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers; they are\npart of the government). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given\nthe Corona Pandemic, it is humane to allow them to remain in their\naccommodation until the lifting of the curfew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also,\nthere is no public consensus in holding the general election on 20 June 2020.\nThe people live in extreme fear of the Corono Pandemic.  They want the Government\/Presidential\ntaskforce to working full steam and take every possible action to eradicate the\nPandemic. They are least concerned about an election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An election can be\nconducted only after the Corono Pandemic is successfully defeated; as currently\nseen, definitely not on 20 June 2020. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage Article 70 (1) of the Constitution \u2013 \u2018The President may by Proclamation, summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament\u2019. The law is very clear, the President has clear power to dissolve the Parliament (Article 33 (1) also provides this power. Accordingly, the President issued a gazette notification on 2 March 2020 dissolving the Parliament.    […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}